Putting a Red Dot on My 1895 - A Learning Experience

[HNSB]

After the end of hunting season I decided to put a Red Dot on my Marlin 1895 for next year.
I bought a weaver rail and red dot scope and put them on last week.
When I mounted the rail I put a drop of blue loc-tite in each screw hole, tightened everything up, mounted the sight and put the gun away.

Today I was going to zero the sight and found that the rifle's bolt was stuck tight. It turns out the threaded holes in the receiver are through holes, and with the loc-tite, I effectively glued the bolt closed.
I removed the sight and rail, and was able to run a wood dowel down the bore and hammer the bolt out.
I then scraped all the dried loc-tite out of the receiver.
The bolt runs freely now, but I think I am going to polish it and the receiver a little more.

This got me to thinking - I've seen several posts about smoothing out the actions on these rifles.
Is that just a matter of removing burrs and polishing the lever, bolt, and receiver?

As long as I'm going to be in there cleaning it all out I'd like to see if I can make it a little smoother while I'm at it.

[Jailer]

A cheap red dot won't last on a 45-70. Mine lost zero after 4 shots.

[HNSB]

That's why I wanted to put it on right after hunting season; to have time to figure out what works.
This is a Bushnell unit that is marketed for hunting rifles and claims to be fully shock proof.
I guess we'll see what happens.

[NSB]

A cheap red dot won't last on a 45-70. Mine lost zero after 4 shots.
I keep reading the OP and can't find where it says "cheap red dot". He may have put a cheap one on, or maybe not. However, I can tell you that a decent quality red dot will hold up on a 45-70. I have one on my Win 1886 and it works just fine. Turnbull Mfg. sells a mount for the Win 1886 and it's designed for the Burris FF2 or FF3 mount. I've shot mine quite a bit and it's still holding zero. If fact, I killed a buck with it last Sunday. I think the OP will be very happy with the red dot provided he gets one of decent quality. I doubt one of the thirty-five to sixty-five dollar units would hold up but the Burris is still reasonably priced at around two twenty-five.

[W.R.Buchanan]

HNSB: go to www.leverguns.com and look in the Marlin Resources section. There you will find everything you need to know about slicking your Marlin up The 1894's and 1895's and 336's all function exactly the same way so what works for one, works for all.

Just deburring all the sharp edges makes a lot of difference. A reduced power spring kit from Brownell's will reduce the trigger pull to a nice 3-4 lbs. Unless you are going to race the gun there is little reason for going too deep into the action beyond what I have stated above.

Randy

[HNSB]

Thanks Randy!

I just deburred the lever and the bolt and that already made a huge difference.

I'll check out leverguns to see what else I can do with it.

[Jailer]

I keep reading the OP and can't find where it says "cheap red dot". He may have put a cheap one on, or maybe not. However, I can tell you that a decent quality red dot will hold up on a 45-70. I have one on my Win 1886 and it works just fine. Turnbull Mfg. sells a mount for the Win 1886 and it's designed for the Burris FF2 or FF3 mount. I've shot mine quite a bit and it's still holding zero. If fact, I killed a buck with it last Sunday. I think the OP will be very happy with the red dot provided he gets one of decent quality. I doubt one of the thirty-five to sixty-five dollar units would hold up but the Burris is still reasonably priced at around two twenty-five.

He didn't say anything about a cheap one, I was just relating my experience. Mine was a primary arms aim point micro clone. Pretty nice unit for the money but not up to task of surviving heavy recoil.

I did email aimpoint and ask them if their red dots would handle the recoil of a 45-70. I received a very enthusiastic "we absolutely guarantee it will!" as a reply and said they would stand behind that claim 100%

[HNSB]

I would call the one I have a mid-priced red dot.

Now that I've got everything fixed up and the sight remounted, I'm hoping to get some time to shoot this weekend.

I'll let you know how it holds up.

[Jailer]

If you're willing to dedicate your reloading for your 1895 to using Federal primers a reduced power hammer spring reduces lever effort quite a bit. That along with the deburring you've already done will make a vast improvement in the functionality of your rifle.

[HNSB]

I'll have to kick that around a bit.
After deburring the only place that sticks is where the rear of the bolt passes over the hammer as it goes forward. I wonder if a lighter spring would help that too...
On the other hand, it's already much smoother than it was, so perhaps it's best to leave well enough alone.

[bobthenailer]

As soon as i worked up some accurate loads with my 1895 in 357 mag with cast & jacketed bullets using a 2x7 Leupold scope , i switched over to a Aimpoint comp for all of my shooting about 10 years ago. this combo is my favorite center fire rifle to shoot

[W.R.Buchanan]

HNSB: the cam on he bolt that moves the hammer is the main source of drag on the system. It must push the hammer back far enough to make sure the sear catches , which is the easy part,,, then as the lever is returned it pushes the hammer down again as it passes over it. That's where the real drag is, since the hammer is being pushed rearward by the bolt which is going forward.

If you notice the front of the cam is tapered much more than the rear of the cam which is usually a radius.

The lighter spring does help in that regard, but smoothing and radiusing the top of the Hammer face is where you can pick up more gain.

The hammer has to go far enough to catch the sear. In stock form the hammer goes way further than necessary. However you don't want to over do it here as if you go too far it won't catch at all and the gun will fire as you close the lever. You really don't want this.

The Brownells kit has a lighter Hammer spring, (some people just shorten the existing spring) as well as the trigger spring and the lever detent spring all of which influence how smooth the levering cycle happens.

The other main area of drag is the Ejector sliding it it's slot in the bolt. All you can really do here is polish the slot and the little nub on the Ejector. A Wild West Ejector is a good addition.

I haven't had any light strikes with any of my guns. However if I was going to use one for hunting anything that bites or being near them I'd put the stock spring back in. Not enough gain there to matter in a hunting rifle that you may lever three times in a row.

Randy

[HNSB]

Thanks Randy.
It is a hunting gun, and I'm not real comfortable modifying the hammer.
I think after the holidays I'll play with the springs.

[Jailer]

I've had a few light strikes with Winchester primers so I use strictly Federals in mine now. Never had a problem lighting Federal primers.

HNSB the spring kit Randy mentioned made the single biggest difference in my gun. Deburring helped smooth things out but the reduced power springs are what made it all come together nicely.

[Socal147]

I use an Aimpoint Pro on mine. Only shooting light loads and have yet to do a zero. The scope was close enough for me to "lob" bullets at a two hundred yard hanger. My eyes suck. Aimpoints don't fail.

[HNSB]

I just spent some time this morning with a small file, very carefully adding a bit more radius to the back of the hammer, then polished the hammer and bottom of the bolt starting with 320 grit sandpaper and going up to the finest micromesh, then using simichrome on cotton.
I redarkened the hammer with cold blue.
I still have a fair amount of overtravel beyond where the hammer catches the sear, but I didn't want to go too crazy.

It's really really smooth now.
I don't think I'll bother with a lighter spring. I'm very happy with how this feels, and I won't need to worry about which primers.

Thanks for the help guys!

[Char-Gar]

Yep...I put some red Loctite on the mounting screws on a Redfield 102 I mounted on Marlin levergun. That is how I found out they were through and through holes. I will never put Loctite in any hole again without probing it to see where it end.

Live and learn.

[snaketail]

I have a $35 cheap red dot (BSA) on my 12 gauge slug gun. It has held up well for more than 200 shots. If it breaks next time out I think I still got my money's worth.

M